A Day in the Life

There is really no good reason to mash two vacations together as closely as we did, especially with kids. This is why there are so few pictures from this trip. 2 adults + 2 little kids = no one to hold the camera. But Zac had a recruiting activity in Utah last Thursday, so we left the houseboat a little early and all flew up to visit some family and friends for the Labor Day weekend. We had about 16 hours between getting home from the houseboat on Wednesday and leaving for Utah on Thursday. We unpacked and repacked, slept a little, and were off the Utah on Thursday morning. After a 2 hour flight where both kids slept little but were pretty well-behaved, we drove the hour down to Provo, stopping to see Cami at work, Nicole so I could borrow her pack-n-play, and Juli to see her dorm and have some dinner on her Dining Plus:)

After dropping Zac at his recruiting activity, I drove down to Salem, where we were staying with Zac’s grandma. The kids were so exhausted, and Nolan screamed the whole 30 minutes drive, but we got there safely, and got everyone in bed about 2 hours late. Zac’s grandma commented, “Wow do your kids usually go to bed that easily?” Ha! No way, but when they are as tired as they were, they both fell asleep immediately. This was a tender mercy for me, because I was stressing over how the sleeping arrangements were going to work out. And sometimes when baby (or toddler) is overtired, they have a harder time calming down. But luckily it was easy, especially since Zac wasn’t there to help me.

The next day we went to BYU’s Bean Museum, where Addie loved seeing all sorts of animals and pointing out all the ones she knew, and giving them names. Then off to Zub’s for lunch (yum!), and back to Grandma’s to spend the rest of the afternoon/evening.

Saturday we had a playdate! We went to Rock Canyon Park with some friends and family and just played on the playground and talked. I’m sorry if you weren’t able to come or didn’t know about it. I literally sent out the email on our way to the airport, so if I missed you, I’m so sorry! I did very little planning ahead on this trip. Later on we hit Cafe Rio for lunch (of course), Cami and Juli came to visit us at grandma’s, and then Kami and Matt came down later that evening. Thank you for all making the trek down to Salem to see us!! We loved seeing you and wish we could have been there longer!

Sunday we spent some time at Salem Pond, feeding the ducks and playing on the playground. Addie LOVED Salem pond. The weather was gorgeous, so we spent a lot of time outdoors on Sunday. After a big fun family dinner that night, we were exhausted and had to get packed and ready to leave at 5:45am the next morning for our flight. I told you, we are crazy!!

It was a whirlwind trip, where 3/4 of us got colds, but we are home now, and are getting back on our schedules and trying to catch up on our sleep. Next up…..a new school year. We are starting a co-op preschool with Addie next week, where I will be helping with the teaching.

Does it seem like all our family vacations are boat-related? That’s because both our families own boats and have chosen that as their family activity of choice for the past 20ish years. This time we went with Zac’s family to Arkansas for their first houseboat trip. We made the 6 hour drive without incident (our longest drive with 2 kids so far) to Lake Ouachita. Then we spent the next 6 days relaxing on the beautiful lake in amazing 90 degree weather! We had 7 adults and 5 children under age 5, including 2 babies, so it was a little hectic, but all in all we had a great time.

Sunrise

Houseboat

We swam behind the boat.

Swimming

Rope Climbing

We waterskiied/wake boarded.

Boat

Addie

Andrea

Addie jumped in to "save" me

We went in the hot tub.

We threw rocks in the lake.

Down to the shore

Addie and Caleb

We went for 5am walks around the island (the kids were up this early almost every morning. ugh)

Bubbles

We barbecued.

In the kitchen

We slid down the slide.

Slide Trick

Sliding

Sliding together

We fished.

Austin caught this one

Caleb fishing

Zac teaching Addie how to fish with a stick

Addie fishing

Grandpa caught a HUGE catfish!

We played with our “twin” babies. (While on our grocery run to Sam’s Club, a couple of different people asked if these boys were twins. Nope, but they are pretty close in age)

Nolan and Kaiden

What a ham!

Hats

Dimples!

We loved it! We are definitely planning on doing it again sometime.

Cousins making pirate faces

Family reading time

Having so much fun!

Addie loves her pink life jacket

We had a great trip to Hawaii. Here are some of our favorite photos from the trip. Let us know which ones you like the most in the comments.

Lately Andrea has been spending time during Adelyn’s naps trying to get caught up on her scrapbooking. As a result we have gone through lots of our old photos trying to decide what photos we should print. Going through these photos has reminded us of some of the great times we have had together and this trip was definitely one of them. Last May Andrea and I went on an Alaskan cruise to celebrate our graduations from college. Although the trip was amazing we never blogged about it. So here it goes almost 10 months late.

We started our cruise in Seattle Washington and we stayed at a hotel neat the space needle. While we were there we spent a lot of time visiting the Pikes Place Market where we looked at lots of fresh flowers and fish. It’s a really cool place, but don’t mistake the underground shops for the real Pikes Place. They are dodgy and not worth visiting.

Seattle's Space Needle

Fresh Fish at Seattle's Pikes Place Market

In Juneau Alaska we went on a whale watching excursion. We saw tons of whales, actually just like 5 whales but we saw them come up and down a bunch of times. There was a tour guide on the boat who taught us all about Alaska’s wildlife. Some people claimed they saw a black bear, but we know they were lying. They were like, “oh look, you can see its fingernail through the trees, 7 miles away!” I’m sorry that I don’t believe you. We also saw lots of bald eagles, but our photos didn’t turn out that great but we did get some good ones of the whales.

Humpback Whale Tail

Orca Whales

When we were in Skagway we had an amazing day touring the Alaskan Frontier. We rode on a bus deep into the Yukon Territory of Canada and rode ATV’s in the worlds smallest desert. After we had learned tons about the Alaksan gold rush in 1898 we rode the White Pass Railroad back to Skagway. The train was great and I spent the whole ride standing between the train cars taking photos. It was awesome.

Four Wheeling in the Worlds Smallest Desert

Between the Train Cars

White Pass Railway

Old Railroad Bridge

We spent another great afternoon in Glacier Bay National Park. The cruise ship pulled deep into the park and then stopped beside the Marjorie Glacier. We stood and marveled at the sheer size and color of the glaciers for hours. The boat turned in very slow circles so everyone could see the glacier before we left. Luckily for us we were able to see the glacier break off a few times and fall into the water. One time I happened to have the camera poised and ready and caught the action on film. The sound of the ice cracking was surprisingly loud. Although everyone else was fighting it out on the top deck trying to get a good view, we spent most of the day on our balcony just relaxing, which made the additional cost for balcony room well worth it!

Glacier Break

Marjorie Glacier in Glacier Bay

Our last stop in Alaska was in Ketchikan. This was Andrea’s favorite excursion because we went zip lining. Did you know that Ketchikan is home to the earth’s largest, intact temperate rainforest? Neither did we but it was beautiful and very green. We got to ride in an old Army truck to get us up into the mountains because the terrain was so steep. Andrea and I both fibbed a little so we could go zip lining. Andrea was pregnant with Adelyn at the time (13 weeks) and I have a history of back problems. We were told by our guides that these were the only two things that would keep us from going. So we just failed to mentioned that we each suffered from these things. Don’t worry we repented! The other thing you should know is I am terribly afraid of heights, and this whole excursion made me feel very unsafe. It ended up being a lot of fun, but walking across the sky bridges almost made me cry. The worst part was when our tour guide started jumping on the sky bridge and the whole thing started shaking and swaying. I think I kept my cool for the most part but I was very relieved when we got back on the ground. It was fun, Andrea LOVED it and we made some great memories.

Our Zipline Truck

Ready to Fly on the Ziplines

Ziplining in the earth's largest, intact temperate rainforest

Narrow Skybridge

If you ever got a chance to go to Alaska it is amazing. The sheer size and majesty of the area is breathtaking. We loved our time there and plan on going back someday at the end of the summer to see everything in bloom. What an amazing trip!

We just got back from a trip to Utah last week for Zac’s grandma’s 80th birthday party, where we met a lot of his cousins/aunts/uncles etc. His family is unlike mine, in that my cousins and I all grew up very close, almost like siblings that have different parents. He has about 7 cousins that we see regularly and spend time with, and the others live far away or are just not in constant contact with each other. So it was nice to meet the ones I haven’t met and introduce them to our family. Adelyn met so many people that I think she went into over stimulation mode while we were there. Yesterday (the first full day we were home), she took 3 naps totaling over 7.5 hours of sleep during the day. Not that I minded, I was wiped out too!

Adelyn did great on her first flight! She had no trouble with take off or landing (probably because we were jamming the pacifier in her mouth the whole time), and just played and slept for the rest of the time. On the way home I was alone with her (Zac flew home early) and lucky me, she slept the whole way! My arm was dead from holding her in the same position for 2 hours, but I was glad I didn’t have to feed her with a strange man sitting next to me.

first flight

airplane ride with mom

What's out the window?

We stayed with Nicole and Mark (Thanks guys!) and Trevor, who were so much fun to play with. I think Trevor will be the best big brother, once he gets over the fear of his mommy holding another baby…They took us to Sweet Tooth and Quilted Bear, to look for headbands for Adelyn. We made FABulous organic cheeseburgers (not fully organic, just the cow) with Kami and Matt and Tara, and loved every minute of it! Other food establishments that we made time to visit while in Utah were:

Cafe Rio - Of course

Maglebys - for French Toast

Carls Jr

zubs

After Zac went home, Adelyn and I stayed with Cami B, who took off work to entertain us! She took us shopping and took us to Denise’s to make flowers and bows for all the little girl babies in the family. Seriously, I fell in love. I know everyone around here has baby boys, but if anyone is interested in making bows with me, please let me know! It is great fun! We also went to Ty’s blessing, where Adelyn met some of her new cousins, and they had great fun together.

Addie and Aimee

Four babies

Thanks to all of you who played with us while we were in Utah! We are happy to be home, but we miss all of you and wish we could see you more often!

Wiped out